Healthcare Access

CMS’s Innovation Center is moving ACCESS from concept to implementation, selecting 150 participants for the voluntary 10-year Advancing Chronic Care with Effective, Scalable Solutions model launching July 5, which ties Medicare payments to measurable outcomes in obesity, diabetes, musculoskeletal pain, and depression through technology-enabled chronic care management. The model reflects the Trump administration’s CMMI strategy under Abe Sutton: leaner payment design, voluntary participation, private technology partnerships, and a stronger emphasis on prevention, competition, and taxpayer protection—creating opportunity for digital health firms, safety-net innovators, and VBC infrastructure vendors while raising execution questions around attribution, outcomes measurement, and provider economics. For ACOs, health systems, and payers, ACCESS signals that CMMI is positioning tech-supported specialty and chronic care models as a scalable complement to population health contracts rather than a replacement for them, with early participants treating the model as an accelerant for value-based care capabilities (CMS announces 150 participants; lean payment, voluntary participation).